The Rattata Hermit!

Last time we saw out heroes, they were making their way through Viridian Forest on the way to Pewter City and Leo first Gym Battle, along the way they met Bug Cather Extraordinaire Devon and battled him and his Weedle which, after a run in with the criminals Nat and Rick of Team Rocket, evolved into Kakuna. Now as we pick up on Leo and Evan's trail they are discussing something of vital importance.

"When are we getting out of this forest, it seems to go on forever, everywhere I look there are more trees and more dirt with the occasional bush thrown in for good measure! We have to be near the exit right?" Evan had had enough of travelling rough, it had been almost a week since they left the Pokémon Centre and the only comfort they enjoyed was the food Leo cooked on a daily basis, but even the supplies were running thin at this point. Leo snatched the Pokènav from bag and checked the locator screens,

"According to these map projections, we will be out of Viridian Forest in about two days, that's including stops for lunch, sleep and dinner as well as some additional training. It's not so bad on the road Evan, maybe it gets better." Evan smirked, but nodded he knew Leo was right, it was just that he felt lousy from the constant walking, that and the fact that nothing even the slightest bit interesting had happened since their encounter with Devon. The pair of them continued along the path and Leo mind turned away from the subject of travel time and camping to more predominant matters in his mind, like his training. Venonat was still struggling to use Poison Fang effectively, even though when he had it practice on sticks or other inanimate objects it worked flawlessly but in a regular battle there seemed to be little to no way of Venonat being able to use the attack. Leo was not ready to give up however and maintained that Poison Fang would be used in his first Gym Battle and it would work. Houndour was progressing much more steadily and had already moved up from using Leer to using Glare which of course Paralyses most Pokémon, a trait which Leo felt would come in very handy later on. Leo was pleased that Pidgey had also started learning Wing Attack which he thought would be useful if he was in a tricky situation all in all Leo was just pleased with his Pokémon's overall achievements. Evan was also doing wonders with his Pokémon and even though he kept reminding Leo that he would not be the one participating in Gym battles Leo kept assuring him that he was more than capable of participating in them. Evan turned to Leo and asked him,

"So, are you thinking of training Houndour to use a Fire-type move a little stronger than Ember?" Leo looked at Evan with a thoughtful expression,

"It's certainly crossed my mind, but Houndour will probably learn that on its own," then to Houndour, "Wont you Houndour?" Houndour looked up at Leo and barked happily knowing what Leo said to be true and knowing that even if it took months or even years, Leo would wait until Houndour was ready to learn it and not force anything on to it. As the group rounded a bend in the road both Tyrogue and Houndour stopped dead in their tracks and started looking all around themselves, Houndour emitting a low growl while Tyrogue took up and offensive posture. "What is it guys?" Leo asked beginning to look around him and then Evan said,

"Did you hear that?" Leo strained his ears, then he heard it a low rustling in the undergrowth around then and a scuttling sound accompanied it immediately afterward. As hard as he tried Leo could not pinpoint where the noise was coming from, then when the tension had reached a point that they were going to lash out at the very next sound something burst from the bushes and leapt high, arcing over everyone's head, the light from above obscured the detail of the thing, but it was defiantly a Pokémon and as it landed Leo caught a glimpse of something dangling from its mouth, but before he could really get a good look it sped off into the forest. Just as the group let out a collective sigh another figure burst from the bushes beside them but this time there was no disguising what it was. A rather haggard looking old woman burst out of the bushes, walking stick flailing in the air and she crashed right into Evan sending the pair sprawling to the floor in a mess of grey hair and baggy clothes. Leo jumped in surprise as the old woman looked up and reached out toward the shadowy Pokémon figure that had just darted past them,

"Scruffy no, come back!" she hung her head and smiled and Evan spoke up from somewhere underneath the mess of clothes and hair,

"Excuse me madam, I don't wish to be rude but can you please get off of me?" the heavy sarcasm in his voice was not lost on Leo and he smiled a little and used his hand to mask his amusement as the old woman panicked hearing a voice coming from beneath her skirts. She propped herself up on her stick and then stood fully revealing Evan with a perplexed look on his face. She looked down on him apologetically.

"Oh my dear are you alright? I was in such a tizzy with chasing my Scruffy that I didn't see you there." Evan stood with a proffered hand from Leo and dusted the dirt of the road off of him.

"It's ok, no harm done, what was it you were chasing in such a rush?" Evan asked looking in the direction of the mystery Pokémon they now knew was called Scruffy. The old woman sighed and looked down at the ground, she was clearly very upset.

"It's my Scruffy he has run off and wont come back to me when I call him, its such a shame, but when I saw him just now I had hoped to catch him and return him to his Pokèball, but he just ran off again. Then I ran into you." Quite literally into us, thought Leo, but he looked around and then back at the old lady.

"What kind of Pokémon is Scruffy, if you don't mind me asking?" She looked at Leo as though seeing him for the first time,

"He is a Rattata dear and you can tell that is Scruffy because of a little black bow tie he wears around his neck." Leo pulled out his Pokèdex and scanned for Rattata.

"Rattata, the tiny mouse Pokémon, Rattata have large teeth which are constantly growing causing it to gnaw on objects to keep them at a regular size. Rattata often live in small groups on open grassland and the female of the species has noticeable smaller fangs."

"Don't worry we'll help you find your Rattata wont we Evan?" Evan nodded at Leo and said,

"Of course we will no trainer should be separated from their Pokémon, I don't know what I would do if Tyrogue ran away from me like that." Leo shook his head, and Evan held out his hand to the old lady, "By the way, my name is Evan Brawn from Evergreene Town and this is Leo Haik from GreenShoot Town." The woman took Evans hand and shook it then repeated the action with Leo,

"My name is Enid boys and I am the Rattata hermit of Viridian Forest and I'm ever so grateful for your help." The boys slowly looked at each other and smiled.

About half and hour later the boys were walking into the undergrowth after a lengthy conversation with the Rattata Hermit they were now searching for Scruffy. Leo and Evan had both sent their flying types in different directions to search from above for Scruffy and Leo was using every means at his disposal to locate the missing Pokémon by utilising Venonat's radar eye capabilities and Houndour powerful sense of smell. So far they had not turned up much.

"Why do you think Enid's Rattata would just run off like this?" Evan asked Leo as they looked through some bushes, "I mean she doesn't seem to be a nasty trainer in fact she seems just the opposite, a loving and caring trainer whose Pokémon probably don't want for anything. Leo stood straight stretching his back as he rose from a crouch.

"I know what you mean and honestly I can't think of any reason why it would, except…" Evan looked at him questioningly prompting him to continue, "Well you remember during my battle with Devon when the Pokémon suddenly wondered off?" Evan's eyes widened,

"You don't think?" Leo shrugged,

"It's certainly possible, I wouldn't put anything past those crooks from Team Rocket, and they seem intent on poaching Pokémon by the net load. I told about my first night when they tried to capture an entire colony of Sandshrew didn't I?" Evan nodded,

"We had better step up this search then… just in case." They continued on looking, moving ever deeper into the forest along the path that they had seen Scruffy take off down earlier. A cawing from nearby caught their attention as Spearow flew into view and landed on Evan's shoulder, "Any look Spearow, did you see Scruffy?" Spearow shook its head and look down as if sad that it had failed. Evan stroked its breast feathers with his forefinger and said, "Hey cheer up Spearow, you did great, we'll just keep looking and hope Pidgey found something." As if in response to that statement Pidgey hurriedly flew into their sight cawing and pointing with one wing in the direction it had just come, Leo spotted it instantly,

"You found something Pidgey?" Pidgey pointed more insistently this time and the group set off in that direction Venonat, Houndour and Tyrogue taking the lead as the trainers followed. Pidgey displayed once more its tremendous speed as they followed and they found themselves running to link up with another forest path, just as they got to it Venonat started hopping up and down as though it could see something that the others couldn't and a moment later a Rattata ran past them. Its little purple body pumping and running stunningly fast past them, they stopped as it dashed in front of them and stared after it as it ran, Leo then realised something, "that Rattata doesn't have a bow-tie on it." No sooner had he uttered these words than they heard panting and running feet behind them and as Leo turned he found himself being bowled over by an elderly man wearing a tattered old suit and carrying a beat up old walking stick. The two of them collapsed in a heap of dry clothes and dust. The old man lifted his head and stared after the Rattata reaching out his hand as though to grab it he said,

"Lucky no, come back!" He then sighed and let his head droop down onto the ground. Evan cocked an eyebrow and thought to himself how odd a coincidence this was and that this scene appeared to be the same scene as before but with Leo lying under an old man instead of him. Leo coughed and sat up easily spilling the little old man off of himself, Evan helped him up and Leo in turn offered his hand to the man.

"I'm awfully sorry sir, we didn't mean to get in your way," The man looked at him and brushed the dirt down off of his suit,

"No, no need to apologise there kid, I wasn't paying attention to anything in my way. My focus was on catching up to my Lucky and getting her home safe where she belongs." Leo and Evan looked at each other.

"Your Rattata is also running away from you?" The old man looked at them confused,

"What makes you say "also"?" He asked, "Is someone else having Rattata trouble?"

"Actually we're out looking for a Rattata belonging to the Rattata Hermit of Viridian Forest, going by the name of Scruffy, wears a little Bow-tie, don't know if you've seen it?" The man took a look to his face like Evan had just spat on him.

"Now let me guess, this Rattata Hermit of Viridian Forest wouldn't happen to be called, Enid now would she?" The boys exchanged worried glances and nodded in unison, "The nerve of her, taking on my title as well as my profession," The boys now exchanged looks of utter confusion and the old man noticed. "Oh, you didn't know?" They shook their heads, "Well let me fill you in, Ten years ago I came here to Viridian forest with my little group of Rattata, Lucky being chief among them and I lived a quiet existence here, raising them with all the care and affection I had in me, people passing through the forest affectionately named me the Rattata Hermit of Viridian Forest and since I quite like the title I adopted it as my own. Then around seven years ago, Enid moved into the forest with her Rattata Scruffy and some others and built a cabin not twenty feet from my own, starting calling herself the Rattata Hermit of Viridian Forest, suffice to say we have been rivals ever since and she will not admit that I was here first!" Leo and Evan did not quite know what to say. Until Leo took some initiative,

"Look, we are just here to help Enid find her missing Rattata, I'm sure you are just as worried about yours as she is about her own now why don't we all look together, we have more chance of finding them that way than by letting a feud get in the way of finding your Pokémon." Evan nodded and the two boys could see that their point had hit home.

"You are right boys, the name's Kent, and I will help you look for the Rattata, more eyes are bound to help rather than hinder." The boys introduced themselves and they decided it would be best to follow the path that Kent's Rattata Lucky was just seen on and they hurried,

"Pidgey fly on ahead and see if you can spot Lucky or Scruffy,"

"You too Spearow," The two Flying-types headed off down the path faster than they could move and Leo then looked down at Venonat,

"Venonat, you keep those radar eyes of yours open, let me know if you see anything," Venonat bounced on the spot in a nodding kind of motion and started looking around properly, "and Houndour keep that nose and those ears of yours open too you could really help us out." Houndour barked and did just that and the group kept moving.

Soon Leo, Evan Kent and the Pokémon found themselves at a fork in the forest trails thankfully Spearow had decided to wait behind to show the group which path to take, Spearow used its wing to indicate the left path and the group headed that way with all haste, after a few moments they saw a figure lying on the ground up ahead. Evan ran forward and found that it was Enid, the woman who they were helping. She was lying just like before in a heap of clothes and hair, Evan looked and saw that she had tripped on a rock and fallen on her face. Evan rolled her over and woke her up; she sat up with a start,

"Ahhh!" She yelled as she did so, then she looked around at the small group of people that were stood all around her, "Oh, boys so good of you to find me, I caught a glimpse of Scruffy as I was searching around and chased him to this part of the forest but then I seem to have tripped and fell." Her eyes then came to rest on Kent standing beside Leo, "YOU!" She yelled pointing at him with venom dripping from the word, "I bet you were responsible for my Scruffy acting so strange," Kent pointed at himself eyes wide with surprise at this sudden attack, "You never could take the fact that I am just a much better Rattata trainer than you are!" Kent was silent no longer,

"Now wait just a minute here…" From that word onward the two of them seemed to dissolve into a cacophony of noise, with no words discernable from either person, this continued until Evan had had enough and he said so,

"ENOUGH! You two do realise that while you stand here and bicker pointlessly, your two Pokémon are getting further and further away from you and you still have no explanation why, although personally if this is how you two behave all of the time I can see why they would run from the noise." Kent and Enid stared at Evan, eyes wide with surprise at their sudden reprimand at the hands of one so much younger than them, "Can't you two see that you actually have more in common that different, you shouldn't be arguing you should be working together to raise the Pokémon you claim to care so much about," Kent and Enid were silent now, looking at the ground with a wave of sadness and shame rolling over them. The silence lingered for a little while and then a cawing broke it like a pane of glass as Pidgey roared back onto the scene. Leo look up at the madly gesticulating Bird Pokémon,

"Pidgey has found them, come on before they realise we know where they are!" The group set off at a run, Pidgey out in front with Leo, Houndour, Venonat and Spearow closest behind with Evan, Enid and Kent bringing up the rear. Pidgey lead them through a maze of trees and bushes with more twists and turns that Leo thought necessary, but Leo stayed on Pidgey's tail all the way, eventually they found Pidgey perched on a low tree branch and pointing into a clearing with it wing. Everyone got close to the fallen log that lay just behind the tree line and looked into the clearing. There was a huge tree in the clearing, it stood at least two hundred feet high and had large roots that stood as thick as branches above the ground. Nestled between these roots were two Rattata, snuggled up together one wearing a little black bow-tie around its neck, the other with a peach scarf around its neck, they were sleeping, clearly tired out from the running they had been doing, but there was no doubting the fact that these were the Pokémon they had been searching for. Kent and Enid crept closer while Leo and Evan returned Pidgey, Spearow and Venonat to their Pokèballs and quickly followed them out toward the tree. The two Rattata snapped awake as they sensed the approach of their trainers but they knew they had no where to go as they were trapped between the roots of the trees. The odd thing was they seemed scared of something, but Leo had no idea what it was, then as Lucky licked Scruffy on the cheek, Evan was sure he knew what was going on.

Lucky, what are you doing with her, Rattata? Come on we're going home," Kent said holding up her Pokèball,

"Scruffy what have I told you about hanging around his Pokémon? Come, let's go." But neither Rattata moved in fact Scruffy jumped in front of Lucky as Kent came toward them with the Pokèball, as if protecting her from him, Leo turned to Evan,

"What do you think is going on," He whispered to him, but Evan spoke loudly wanting everyone to hear,

"They are in love." Everyone turned to look at him, "Like I said earlier you and Kent have a lot in common Enid and clearly your Pokémon can feel that because they have found each other, maybe the solution is to stop fighting and turn your attention to being the Rattata Hermit's together, if not for yourselves then do it for your Rattata, that's why they ran away, they could never be together if you two only fought and argued all of the time, but if you could learn to co-exist then your Rattata could be happy and they would come back with you." Kent and Enid looked at their Rattata who were once again stroking each other with their heads and then at each other. Kent spoke first,

"I suppose we have been a little hard on each other, I just had my pride wounded is all with you stealing my title, but my Lucky means the world to me and if giving up this feud will make her happy then so help I'll do it." Enid nodded along to what he said,

"I only came out here because the life-style I heard you were living sounded like the best thing for me and I only got into this feud so that I could keep living here, I would happily give it up for my Scruffy and his happiness though," She held out her hand, "Friends?" Kent looked at the proffered hand and bowed his head, then he reached out and took it,

"Friends," he said the two Rattata noticed this exchange and ran to their respective trainers, who picked them up and hugged them but held them close enough together that their tails could still touch. Leo and Evan smiled at the happy resolution and for Leo time seemed to crystallise for a moment looking at the happy Rattata in their trainers arms all love and smiles, it was the kind of moment a Pokémon trainers heart warmed at seeing and proved the bond between Pokémon and Trainer was sometimes strong enough to change relationships between people.

A little while later, back at the Hermit's huts Leo and Evan stood with their gear ready to move on once more, Kent and Enid, Scruffy and Lucky all stood to see them off,

"We can't thank you enough boys for all you have done for us," Enid said,

"If it wasn't for you we could have been stuck in that silly feud for years until we realised the effect it was having on our poor Rattata." Kent added with a smile. Leo smiled back,

"It was nothing, we were happy to help, but the sun is getting low we had better make tracks," So Leo and Evan set off once again for Pewter City waving back to the four souls they had helped that day who stood waving and yelling goodbye to them. Evan turned to Leo,

"We did a great thing today buddy, I think we should be proud," and Leo said,

"We should, it's not everyday you get to fix an entire group of people and help their Pokémon at the same time, I think we really made a difference." Houndour barked and nudged Leo leg, "and of course we can't forget Evan that the Pokémon played a huge part today" Leo added scratching Houndour behind the ear. While Evan's Tyrogue smiled up at Evan who thanked it for its help also. "Another day or so and we'll be at Pewter City Evan, why don't we get a move on?" and with that Leo and Houndour broke into a run leaving Evan to run behind, yelling,

"What? Oh come on! Slow down already! Leo!"

So our heroes found the missing Rattata and united to warring Hermits as well as learning something about the bond between trainer and Pokémon, so as they continue on to the last leg of their journey to Pewter City and Leo first Gym Battle what more adventures could await them? Find out in the next instalment…